HARRY POTTER Makes His Comic Book Debut For LOVE IS LOVE Benefit Special

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In today’s Holiday Edition of Comics Relief, we start off with news of Harry Potter’s long awaited arrival in the world of comics, which is happening all for a very good cause. Read on for all the details!

For years, fans have been asking for characters from the Harry Potter universe to come to comics, and so far, no dice. Until now that is. Although it’s just a small inclusion, JK Rowling has approved her characters to appear as part of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting benefit comic book Love Is Love, in an officially authorized piece by artist and DC Comics co-publisher Jim Lee, with colors by Mark Chiarello. You can see a preview of the image above.

Love Is Love is being produced by IDW in conjunction with DC Comics. It depicts Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasely, and Albus Dumbledore conjuring a rainbow with a quote from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that reads “Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.” The quote comes from Dumbledore himself, who author J.K. Rowling has confirmed in recent years as being gay.

The piece was produced with Rowling’s approval–the only such approval the author has given for use of Harry Potter imagery in official comic books. Proceeds from Love Is Love will go to Equality Florida to benefit the victims of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting and their families. The one-shot will be on shelves December 28. [New York Times]

Titan Comics announces Robotech ongoing series writer

Back in June, UK publisher Titan Comics announced they had acquired the rights to ’80s hybrid anime series Robotech from Harmony Gold. Although a cover image for issue #1 was released, which you can see above, we had no creative team attached. Now Titan has announced that Brian Wood (Briggs Land, Rebels) is set as series writer.

In a statement, Harmony Gold USA’s President of Animation Tommy Yune said “We are excited to have the opportunity to work with Brian to expand the Robotech universe. His bold approach to storytelling is thoughtful and will be full of surprises for fans.” Robotech #1 will arrive in the first quarter of 2017. [CBR]

IDW gives Star Trek the Deviations treatment

This year, IDW did a series of one-shot specials under the banner “Deviations”, where famous stories from beloved pop culure properties like X-Files and Transformers deviated from their known timelines. Now Star Trek is joining the Deviations specials in March of next year.

Coming from writer Donny Cates and artist Josh Hood, Star Trek: Deviations centers on an alternate timeline where the Romulans are the alien species that make first contact with Earth rather than the Vulcans (as seen in Star Trek: First Contact). Instead of giving birth to the United Federation of Planets, Earth becomes a harsh penal colony. Below is the official synopsis:

“Resistance fighter William Riker has uncovered a vast conspiracy, and together with his band of prisoner outlaws (you just might recognize a few!), must fight to rescue a mysterious prisoner in the darkest level of the Romulan dungeons. The only man on Earth that still holds the key to humanity’s return to the stars!” So, will it be Captain Kirk or Jean-Luc Picard? Or could it be Janeway or Sisko? Or even Spock?? Find out in March of 2017. [io9]

Greg Capullo becomes DC Comics exclusive

Although he has spent most of 2016 working on Rebornwith writer Mark Millar, artist Greg Capullo is coming back to DC Comics, and specifically his Batman partner Scott Snyder. Greg Capullo has announced via Twitter that he just signed a new contract with the publisher, and is re-teaming with Snyder on a DC event book scheduled for release in the summer of 2017. Earlier this year, he teased his return, saying “Yes, we’re gonna be doing a big summer event, next year, next summer. It will be very Batman centric, and very rock ‘n’ roll.” [Newsarama]

Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott’s Black Magick return faces slight delay

Writer Greg Rucka and artist Nicola Scott have wowed fans all year with their run on Wonder Woman: Rebirth, but in doing so, they had to put their creator-owned series Black Magick on hiatus. Now that Scott’s time on Wonder Woman is ending the duo are planning the return of their Image Comics series. Although it was originally announced as returning in April with new issues, Rucka has now stated that they are delaying it to June in order for the next arc to be released monthly without any skip-months.

In a recent tweet, Rucka sad “So upon reviewing the schedule with Nicola Scott and Jeanine Schaefer for Black Magick, we’ve decided to push back our return date. Instead of the April-as-planned return, we’re going to push to June. We’re doing this for one reason, honestly – we want the arc to ship monthly. That means needing lead time. Apologies for the delay, but necessary, I’m afraid. It’ll be worth the wait!” Black Magick first launched in October 2015, with the first collected edition going on-sale in April. [Newsarama]

In case you haven’t been reading DC lately, over the past year of DC Rebirth, there have been many hints that the pre-New 52 continuity would be making a comeback in some way. And in this week’s Justice League vs. Suicide Squad #1, writer Joshua Williamson dropped an even bigger hint: While the Justice League and the Suicide Squad are battling it out, villain Maxwell Lord had broken the most dangerous criminals in the world out of a secure location and gathered them together. But the location of the book’s final image is very telling.

In the final two pages of the book, Max Lord’s gathering of baddies takes place at the old headquarters of Checkmate in the very same room where Maxwell Lord shot and killed Blue Beetle in Infinite Crisis back in the day. The cracked screen behind Lord (you can see the image above) indicates that those events still in fact happened in the current continuity… even though Ted Kord is alive and kicking in the pages of Blue Beetle right now. Not only that, but many of the villains gathered by Max Lord are clearly pre-New 52 versions of the characters. It seems that Justice League vs. Suicide Squad is a much bigger piece of the Rebirth puzzle than initially thought. [Comics Alliance]

Where do you think Rebirth is headed? Tell us your theories in comments!